Isnin, 14 Julai 2014

Monday's Rambling

You know what I hate the most? Religious People. Yep. Oh wait. You'll have to bear with me to get what I mean by religious, a k a my contextual definition of religious people. Here how's my frustration pent up:

Story no. 1:

Everytime I went to work with dad, I had to listen to IKIM. It's hard not to get me worked up when listening to IKIM. Pagi-pagi dengar tazkirah dan tazkirah dan iklan dan iklan dan nasyid. I have no issues with tazkirah or tazaakir, but really tazaakir all the way? Haven't IKIM pondered upon the hadith from Ibn Mas'ud:

'Abdullah used to give a religious talk to the people on every Thursday. Once a man said: "O Aba 'Abdir Rahman, (By Allah) I wish if you could preach us daily" He replied, "The only thing which prevents me from doing so, is that I hate to bore you, and no doubt I take care of you in preaching by selecting a suitable time just as the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to do with us, for fear making us bored"

Hadith 70, Book of Knowledge, Sahih Al Bukhari.

I was bored to the core and angry all the time when I listened to IKIM. With these two hadiths, I really want IKIM to be held accountable in front of Allah for making people bored of religion and good deeds. How they did it:

They keep pestering us with sermons all the time, morning, noon, evening. In the morning, people tune in another stations with lots of musics and jokes (laughter is very much needed) just to clear their head and start afresh with a new day before getting into bustling busy works. Laughter and musics really help when they are stuck in traffic, because people tend to stressed up during that time. So tell me, who wants to be pestered by sermons and lectures during this peak distressing time? Of course ridiculously positive people. That is exceptional. Normal people like me just get bored. Hey, people are not wrong. So please stop saying that people are not religious/bad when they do not want to hear IKIM. Based on those hadiths, it's so clear you can never put the blame on the audience.

One thing that I wonder so much. Why Ibn Mas'ud restrained himself from doing the lectures, though the audience requested him to do so? He cared so much that people would get bored that consequently people would run away though that was unlikely because it was the audience who requested him, so he would just stop when audience is getting low. It's easy for him to pick up the cue to slow down or to lecture less. Afterall, it's tazkirah and religious lesson, so it's a good thing right? Benda baik. Why not? He might just say: I'm calling people to Allah's path, so there's no way I can be wrong preaching to people many times. It's da'wah. It's ok if some get bored because others might not be. But no. He didn't do it. He hates to bore people.

Look at the asatizah, nuqaba', and religious people. Do they have this attitude? I doubt that. (Do exclude the formal class in school and university)

No. 2: What they named as motivasi, is not motivasi. For me, it's like brainwashing session. So cheap (yep I call it cheap). Yes they are cheap. Why? I'm trying so hard not to talk about the 'asatizah' but you know what they deserve the bashing. The so called ustaz/ ustazah who deliver the motivasi have no qualification at all in Psychology. But yet they are motivativating people? Motivatsi orang tak semestinya kena ada PhD dalam Psikologi. Tapi buat la 'homework pandai'. If they did the homework, it's not enough. You know it's not enough when seeing the outcome. Buku apa yang dibaca pun diragui tahap intelektualnya. Simple rule, you read something brilliant the outcome will be brilliant given their skills to deliberate the talk. But the fact that they do not know how to do 'homework pandai', stop inviting them to the station. They don't deserve the platform. It's where people listen to and find guidance. Beragama bukan tiket memandai-mandai, ada disiplin yang patut dipatuhi. Usage of ayat Quran and hadith? How I wish there had been quality control by IKIM when using hadith and Quranic verses. It's disappointing. I would put the Motivasi Pagi in these words: Simplistik. Sathiy. Bad.

No 3: There's one thing that keeps bugging me once I listen to IKIM, haven't they come across 'SEGMENTED AUDIENCE'? What I can see is their target audience is all level group of people. Kids, teens, mid-lifes, old people. Therefore the outcome is a bit caca-marba, which is ramai yang tertarik hanyalah mereka yang tahan dengan benda-benda yang bosan. Some people only want pure entertainment when tuning in radio, some want to listen to benda-benda cerdik. Sorry IKIM, you are just lame when coming to this stuff and that's why they run to BFM. It's humiliating when comparing the intellectual level of both of these stations, but hey I would up for BFM if I want to listen to current issues. Some are always up for tazkirah and some are just merely filling in time when having a ride.What I see is that, IKIM does not address this matter of fact very well, I doubt that they even know this phenomena exists. Hey, wake up, people are running away, yet you still feel there's nothing wrong with you?

Maybe what they can do is set up another two radio stations that cater different target groups of audience. What group to target, it is up to them. The material presented and ways it is presented would be different. There is no way that a single radio station can be Jack of all Trade. It's an epic fail if they try to do so.

Second thing they should do is, don't just let anybody give the tazkirah. What I'm saying is, please hold the asatizah accountable for what they present to the audience. The easiest way is to set up Jawatankuasa Penilai so that at least the asatizah will be more careful when they deliberate religious talk. Just because it seems religious, doesn't mean it is in order with the religion. There is discipline that has to be adhered to when talking about religion.

Third thing is, they have to be neutral if they want modern contemporary audience to stick with them. Be neutral when discussing current issues. If they cannot afford to be neutral, then don't speak of it at all. It's that simple. Once you side with the government and the justification is against the mass then people would assume that this is another brainwashing agent but with the religious aura.

Oh so Karl Marx was true when he said 'agama bagai candu'. Memandemkan orang daripada berfikir. It's not religion's fault, it's religious people fault. Two different things.